The CMS mandate of the HCAHPS inpatient survey instrument has altered the landscape of patient satisfaction research.  Hospitals are now required to participate in HCAHPS to receive a full payment update.  CMS has already presented its Value-Based Purchasing program proposal to Congress, which proposes to link CMS payments to hospitals’ performance.  As such, hospitals will be financially impacted by their HCAHPS scores.

As Value-Based Purchasing becomes a reality, hospitals will be financially-dependant on ensuring a strong patient satisfaction quality program is implemented organization-wide.  HealthStream Research’s Patient Insights satisfaction research provides a complete solution for measuring and improving your patients’ perception of their hospital care.  We will help you prepare for the future by providing:

Standardized research and accountability across your entire organization
It will become more and more challenging for hospitals to hold managers accountable if more than one survey tool is being used or if different questions using different scales are added to the HCAHPS survey.  HealthStream Research’s approach consolidates your patient satisfaction research under one integrated tool.  Your inpatient research will use the HCAHPS survey with the option of adding custom questions.  Our Outpatient, ED and Physician Office Patients research is also an HCAHPS-based tool that was developed through extensive testing and research.   

Confidence in transitioning to HCAHPS-based survey instruments
Our exhaustive studies have shown significant consistency between the results of traditional (non-HCAHPS) satisfaction surveys and the HCAHPS-based survey for all patient research, with no need to conduct a separate traditional satisfaction survey.  Hospitals’ results with traditional satisfaction surveys matched their performance on the HCAHPS survey.  You’ll obtain all the benefits of using HealthStream Research’s HCAHPS-based survey instruments without sacrificing focus on patient satisfaction.

Organizational efficiency and ease of training
Use of this suite of HCAHPS-based surveys allows for measurement, accountability, and improvement initiatives to be standardized across all patient groups. Also, HealthStream’s online HCAHPS Preparation and Improvement Library provides easy online training tool to ensure every employee in your organization is aware of HCAHPS and how to positively impact your scores.  By increasing staff awareness of the HCAHPS survey and making simple, high-impact changes, you will position your hospital for improvements in patients’ perception of your facility.

Full HCAHPS compliance
HealthStream Research handles the entire HCAHPS process, including data collection, submission of results to CMS, and compliance with all CMS regulations.  CMS’s public reporting will continue to put pressure on hospitals to position themselves to positively impact consumer decisions, so the time to get ready is now.